The Shamrock Genealogist

I enjoy researching the military veterans of the family. The records that you can find can tell you so much about their lives and give you a sense of what they encountered during times of peace as well at war. I've highlighted several military ancestors in my blog. I've recently been digging into my 2nd cousin 1x removed, Horace Joseph. Source: Newspapers.com - Daily News 28 July 1944 Horace died on 6 June 1944 in Normandy, France. He was a paratrooper and broke his leg upon impact. He bled out and died. According to his Find a Grave memorial , he tried to use a tourniquet. Apparently, Horace is included in a book , which I plan on getting a copy of at some point.  6/14 Update: Here's an excerpt from the book Enfin Libres that discusses Horace: " The other soldier did not wore no trace of bullet or stab, but a tourniquet he had made himself above the knee revealed the nature of the wound from which he had succumbed.  His parachute having presumably not working, or too ...

 This past week's #52Ancestors prompt is "Favorite Photo". This is not an easy decision for anyone, let alone a genealogist who treasures each photograph. A long standing tradition for the last few years is receiving a group of photos and family letters from my aunt for my birthday and Christmas. One of my favorite photos is this one of my grandfather, Michael Doherty, during his service in the U.S. army.  It has been hung on the basement wall of my parents' former home for over 18 years. Over the last few years I have been digging into more of my grandfather's service during World War II. I even hired a researcher to go to the National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri to request and scan his military personnel record. Sadly his record was destroyed in the 1973 fire like many of the other Army and Air Force records. There wasn't even a "B file" that remained.  His final payment voucher was kept in a separate location.  This resulted in having to turn...